FILM IN REVIEW; 'Urban Legends' Final Cut

''A serial killer based on urban legends?'' scoffs a character in the 1998 slasher film ''Urban Legend.'' ''Sounds like a stretch to me.''

So it was, and so it continues to be in the sequel, ''Urban Legends: Final Cut,'' even though the new film bears almost no relation to the original apart from the return of one relatively minor character.

Set in a fictional northeastern college, the first film used up most of the urban folk tales grounded in grisly killings -- the madman with an ax hiding in the back seat of a car, the pet placed in a microwave to dry off -- and was even forced to invent some of its own.

About all that is left for the sequel is the one about the guy (this time, a girl) who awakens in a hotel room after a sexual tryst to find that one of his kidneys has been removed, presumably for black market sale -- a tale also recounted in the current independent release ''Urbania.''

Apart from that, the screenwriters Scott Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman have been forced to invent more or less original material, which will still not seem all that fresh to people who have seen ''Scream 3'' -- a demographic that must surely include a significant portion of the target audience for ''Urban Legends: Final Cut.''

As in ''Scream 3,'' the plot depends on a movie within the movie -- this time, a student film being directed by Amy Mayfield (Jennifer Morrison) for her class at Alpine University, an unaccountably named institution located somewhere in New England.

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For her thesis film, Amy comes up with an idea described as ''brilliant'' by her affable professor (Hart Bochner): a serial killer based on urban legends. But every time Amy and her crew -- which includes a lesbian sound technician (Eva Mendes), a womanizing director of photography (Marco Hofschneider) and a pair of nerdy special-effects wizards (Anthony Anderson and Michael Bacall) -- try to film a murder, a real killing occurs somewhere nearby.

The director, the first-timer John Ottman, does his best to mislead the audience by creating real murders that turn out to be fake, and fake murders that turn out to be real, obscuring the line between Amy's movie and his own. The film tries to imitate the hip self-consciousness of the ''Scream'' movies by introducing deliberate cliches (a murdered character returns as his own twin brother) and spoofing hoary conventions (instead of running toward safety, potential victims invariably flee toward the nearest dark wood).

But Mr. Ottman doesn't have the firm grasp of tone necessary to make his deliberate ambiguities seem other than simple confusion, nor the sense of humor necessary to turn the deliberate cliches into effective satire. Continuity not being on the course schedule at Alpine University, it is often hard enough to know who is doing what to whom where, much less why.

The sole returning character is the campus security guard, Reece, played by Loretta Devine with a high, lilting voice and an affection for early Pam Grier films. Should there be an ''Urban Legends 3,'' she definitely deserves top billing.